BPW earns American Public Power Association Safety Award of Excellence

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By Staff report

Holland Sentinel

By Staff report

Posted Apr. 10, 2014 at 7:00 AM

By Staff report
Posted Apr. 10, 2014 at 7:00 AM

Holland, Mich.

The Holland Board of Public Works earned the American Public Power Association Safety Award of Excellence for safe operating practices in 2013.

The BPW ranked second among 31 competitors in the category for utilities with 250,000-999,000 hours of annual worker exposure, a statement from the BPW said. The award was presented at the APPA’s annual Engineering and Operations Technical Conference in Oklahoma City.

“Our electric utility employees produce power for the Holland community and maintain more than 500 miles of 7,200 volt circuits, and safety is our top concern,” BPW General Manager Dave Koster said in a prepared statement. “We’re very proud of them and their safety practices. We’re deeply honored to be recognized among the nation’s top utilities.”

More than 285 utilities entered the annual Safety Awards, the highest number of entrants in the program’s history. Entrants were placed in categories according to their number of worker hours and ranked based on the most incident-free records in 2013. The incidence rate is based on the number of work-related reportable injuries or illnesses and the number of worker-hours as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“In our line of work, safety is the top priority,” said Marlin Bales, chair of the APPA Safety Committee. “Without safety, we can’t serve our customers to the best of our abilities. This award recognizes utilities that have their priorities straight.”

The Safety Awards have presented annually for 54 years. The APPA is the national organization representing more than 2,000 not-for-profit, community and state-owned electric utilities.